Touchy matter: the delicate balance between Morgan’s canon and open-minded description of advanced cognitive skills in the animal

Abstract

Fayet, Hansen and Biro (1) provide two observations of Atlantic puffins, Fratercula arctica, performing self-directed actions while holding a stick in their beaks. The authors interpret this as evidence of tool use as they suggest that the stick was manipulated towards the birds’ plumage with the specific goal of scratching. While these are interesting observations, the authors do not address a simple and likely explanation of the self-directed actions that does not constitute tool use; that the observations occurred by chance. As such, their conclusions about tool use and cognition in seabirds are premature.